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AN ADDRESS 



DELrV'EKED BEFORE THE 



Alumni Association 



RUTGERS COLLEGE, 



NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, 



.A.t Its X04tla ^^ISr]Sri'^EI=i.S^.I=L-^ 



June 16th, 1874, 




BY 



icHARD l: larremore, ll.d. 



^w^^m^^ 



NEW YOKK : 
ISAAC J. OLIVER. BOOK, LAW & JOB PRI^'TER, No. 78 DFANE STREET. 

1874. 



0Al^ 






Jeeset City, July lOth, 1874. 
Hon. RicHAED L. Laeeemoee : 

Dear Sie: — Great regret has been expressed since the adjournment of 
the Ahimni Association, of Kntgers College, that instead of the for- 
mal request for a copy of your very able and valuable address for 
preservation in the archives, appropriate measures were not taken to 
secure its publication, with your permission, in pamphlet form. Promi- 
nent members, among whom I take the liberty of mentioning the names 
of Maurice E. Yiele, Esq., and Eev. Joachim Elmendorf, D. D., have 
suggested that, as President of the Association, I should, on its behalf, 
solicit a copy for the press. Cordially approving the suggestion, I do 
now prefer this request, and assure you, my dear sir, that in granting 
it you will yield to the wishes of every one who listened to your oration, 
and who believes that the sound principles therein set forth and de- 
fended, ought to have a wider circulation, and a more permanent influ- 
ence. 

With great respect, 

Yours sincerely, 

Paul D. Van Cleef. 



New Yoek, July 15th, 1874. 
Eev. P. D. Van Cleef, D. D. : 

Deah Sie: — Yours of the 10th inst. was duly received. Allow me to 
thank you for your kind expression of interest in reference to my ad- 
dress before our Alumni. It was not intended for ears other than our 
own, and will, I fear, suffer greatly in general estimation when "set in 
dull, cold type." This responsibility, however, you have assumed and 
made a compliance with your request, not only possible but imperative. 
Fully appreciating the distinguished consideration of yourself and 
those whom you represent, I remain. 

Truly yours, 

E. L. Laeeemoee. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Alumni Asso- 
ciation : 

The occasion that convenes us has justly become his- 
toric. Year by year, until a century has been told, have 
the foster children of this Institution gathered at the 
shrine of early traditions and associations, and sought 
fresh inspiration for their onward course. 

Here are found the Penates of our intellectual fancy. 
Heterodox as it may seem, we still revere the oracles of 
the past and give them place and power in all our move- 
ments. But what of that intervening period over which 
such benign influences are supposed to have been scat- 
tered ? What has experience to record of our experiment 
of hfe ? How reads the parable of the talents through 
the medium of our senses ? The very atmosphere by 
which we are surrounded is suggestive. Turn which 
way we may, indulge what thoughts we will, an interroga- 
tion meets us at every point. 

This is the legitimate result of intellectual discipline, 
which teaches us to measure life by events which link 
the past to the present and " draw at each remove a 
lengthening chain." From such a source we may prof- 
itably derive a theme for our consideration. 

Explorations in the classic land, however enticing, 
have long since ceased to be a rarity. We cannot always 
sit down to a symposium with the gods and ignore the 
consciousness of our own mortality. 

The realms of philosophy and science are swarming 



6 

with votaries, and none less than philosopher or scientist 
may invade their precincts. 

Circumscribed as we are by the limit of a more prac- 
tical, but no less extensive experience, let us take the 
subject that is nearest and next to us. 

From our present standpoint of review, who can fail 
to be impressed with that wonderful continuity of thought 
and action, which, traced in each successive age, proclaims 
the unity of our race ? How the men who were, and are, 
and shall be, seem indissolubly connected in sentiment 
and sympathy. One generation has supplemented an- 
other, each in turn aiding in the construction of our 
social and intellectual fabric. And the germ of that 
prosperity of which this century is so justly proud, is to 
be sought only in the remotest antiquity. 

We can see and hear the perpetual flow of the ocean, 
and know that since time was, or shall be, it hath never 
been, it can never be, at rest. In like manner would we 
try to comprehend that continuous procession of the 
ages, that with steady march and unbroken ranks has 
discovered and dispensed the rich fruitage of human 
experience. 

This, then, is the thing that is nearest to us — a con- 
sciousness of growth or change in all human relations, 
coexistent with ourselves, and with all who share our 
nature. 

It may well be said that this is a colossal subject, and 
should not be marred by puny effort in its elucidation. 
But the spirit of the times invites — nay, demands — its 
consideration by all those who wear the badge of intel- 
lectual culture. Duty and safety alike require that hu- 
man capacity, which may become an instrument for good 
or evil, should be rightly understood and directed. We 
shall suffer no reproach if our passing remarks only 
arrest attention, and lead others to i^^sA out for them- 



selves the meaning and measure of human accountabihty. 

Thus we are brought face to face with the world's great 
problem, Progressive Humanity ; and our brief inquuy 
at this time will be addressed to its 
Nature, its 
Development, and its 
Reward. 

It may be safely premised that the popular idea of 
education involves and includes, as Pope tersely ex- 
presses it, "A knowledge both of books and human 
kind." 

We have not only to deal with the humanities of 
literature, but with those of life, and the humanity which 
has been assumed to be the basis of progress will be 
found to be itself progressive. 

Nor are we to be tied up to mere abstractions in the 
consideration of this question. We shall find a person- 
ality underlying its whole texture, that will quicken and 
intensify both thought and expression. 

Human nature in motion, whether pacing or striding, 
will ever be an epitome of humanity. 

What then is its essence ? What constitutes it, what 
it is? 

What the unit is to the multitude, the individual is to 
the great mass of mankind. Starting, therefore, with 
individual growth, we shall ultimately reach that univer- 
sal progression which constitutes humanity in its widest 
sense. 

It is a matter for congratulation that the limit of these 
exercises precludes all consideration of pre-historic man. 

He, whom the scientist would have us believe worked 
out his own naturalization by force and evolution. W^e 
are quite content to make his acquaintance after he 
had ceased to crawl and climb, and stood erect in 
God's own image. Accepting the doctrine of inspira- 



s 

tion without debate, as it always must be if accepted at 
all, we seek for a solution of the discipline which such a 
Divine creation enjoys. 

Too long have the people avoided a responsibility 
which the prelacy have borne unaided. The all-absorb- 
ing question now is : What is further education going to 
do for the race, and what shall the race do for it ? 

Let us see, if we can, how humanity begins, broadens 
and ends. 

Whether or not the first act of human consciousness 
be objective or subjective, cannot affect the well recog- 
nized principle that behind all the knowledge we pos- 
sess, there is something that transcends knowledge. In 
this, both moralist and scientist agree, so the latter 
deepens and widens his investigations, climbing one Alp 
after another, and still "Alps on Alps arise." He traces 
all natural phenomena to the theory of force, but fails 
to tell us what force is. All he can do is to point to its 
effect. 

Clearly, then, there must be a point in every thinking 
mind " where reason ends and faith begins," else must 
we doubt our own self -existence. For how can this be 
explained by the processes of reasoning ? In the lan- 
guage of a late writer, "the mental act in which self is 
known, imphes, like every other such act, a perceiving 
subject, and a perceived object. If, then, the object i^er- 
ceived is self, what is the subject that perceives ; or if it 
is the trtie seK that thinks, what other self can it be 
that is thought of?" 

Here, then, the religious sentiment is enthroned and 
forms the first round in the ladder of human progress. 
How came the world to be and by what power is it up- 
held ? That this question has been asked and answered 
in all ages, and by all types of manhood is a fair histori- 
cal inference. 



9 

Atheism, Pantlieisin and Theism, have at least one 
belief in common — a recognition of some creative power, 
or first great cause above human comprehension. 

This much science must and does concede to religion. 
But here they part company, and the path of each is 
separate and distinct until, as we shall find, they reunite 
at the very point of their divergence. 

Curious and wonderful indeed are the first awakenings 
and manifestations of consciousness. With the earth 
for an empire, the primal man must needs have used all 
his perceptive and refiective faculties. Objects in nature 
produced impressions, which, by recurrence and com- 
parison, grew into convictions. 

We can form some idea of this primitive development, 
from that which we witness in the home circle. 

A child not old enough to articulate will repeatedly 
indicate, by gesture, the place from which he once re- 
ceived a confection or toy. So with continuous growth, 
impressions and convictions are multiplied and strength- 
ened, and the foundation of experience is laid. Even 
though this experience at first related to matters con- 
nected with human want, it also contained the elements 
of a higher wisdom. The inquiry would naturally extend 
from the loaf that was eaten, to the harvesting of the 
seed fi'om which it was made — the cause of its growth, 
and so on to the first great cause. 

And so with this rationale of the individual nature, we 
reach that of the multitude which is simply an aggrega- 
tion of the former, and the multiplication and comparison 
of new and more varied experiences. One learned to 
secure food, another to provide raiment, and a thii-d 
found a covert from the storm. Thus the knowledge of 
each, though influenced by the same motives and derived 
from different sources, was made subservient to the 
benefit of all. 



10 

We reach then the first characteristic of humanity — a 
spirit of investigatio7i — seeking to know the why and the 
wherefore of things material and immaterial. 

Thus reason, as well as revelation, confirms the belief 
that " through desire, a man, having separated himself, 
seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." No longer 
content to grovel, he begins the toilsome ascent from 
appetite to aspiration. Rising from the sphere of self- 
idolatry to the reahzation of human duty, he begins to 
share in the plans and purposes of an infinite wisdom. 
Brought in contact with his fellows, he is called upon 
to adapt himself to new relations and responsibilities. 
A division and corresponding restriction of rights and 
privileges must ensue. Passions are to be subdued, 
virtue encouraged, and sentiments of friendship and 
affection inspired and perpetuated. Selfishness, the 
great prison house of philanthrophy, unbars its doors, 
and the soul, emancipated and renewed, seeks for the 
source of its power and destiny. 

"What a wonderful institution is this co-partnershi^D of 
human-kind. What a mutuality of interests it incul- 
cates and protects. Self-protection against A, for blood 
or barter, unites B and C in a community of defence. 
And this recognition runs through the whole alphabet 
of the human race. Brutish and sensual in its inception, 
it rises at last to the acknowledgement and control of 
principle, and thus reaches a Divine attribute. 

Thus we are led to believe that since the world was, 
these mental processes of research have been unremitted, 
flowing down through the ages and lighting in advance 
the paths they follow. 

Who then will deny that this acquisition of knowledge 
is serious, sober business. Neither the subtleties of 
logic, nor the sesthetics of literature can obscure the fact, 
that the mind, capable of *' infinite possibilities," is im- 



11 



pelled by a power it knows not of, and guided by a wis- 
dom it cannot comprehend. 

Next in order to this desire for investigation we find 
that of comrminication. Self-knowledge is diffusive, and 
naturally gTavitates toward a central intelligence. 
There is no room nor recognition for an intellectual 
miser in the economj^ of Divine government. Publish, 
declare, proclaim, teach all nations are mandates of 
universal application, and " there is no speech nor lan- 
guage where their voice is not heard." 

How then, did the medium of this communication or- 
iginate ? In what way did thought first find expression ? 

Two theories are advanced by philologists, and the 
choice ultimately lies between Moses and Darwin. 

Learning to talk, by imitating the cries of animals3 
may be a very scientific process, but we would fain be- 
lieve that we were not less favored than the beast, in 
the general distribution of voices. We emphatically 
protest against a theory that awards a monopoly of 
sound to the lower orders of creation, and leaves man, 
the superior animal, the poor privilege of imitation. 
We rest our case on the Divine origin of speech, hop- 
ing that the words of our mouths and the meditations 
of our hearts may always be acceptable to the Power 
that conferred the gift. 

Another characteristic of this seeking and communing 
nature is that of assimilation. 

Philosophy teaches us that when a body in motion 
comes in contact with one at rest, each moves on with 
an equal, but diminished velocity. 

In a certain sense this principle may be applied to 
intellectual progress. Influence takes the place of force, 
and the contact of mind Avith mmd both impels and 
restrains. 

It was a grand conception of Kepler to ascribe the 



n 

movement of each planet to the agency of a spirit, and 
the theory rolled along the centuries, until it set in mo- 
tion the Newtonian doctrine of gravitation. Supersti- 
tion struck reason, and in the rebound error lost its po- 
tency in like proportion to the impetus it had given to 
truth. 

Thus all mental acquisitions act and react on each 
other. Individual experience is tested by individual 
experience, until they aggregate in popular sentiment. 

This meeting and mingling of the thought-power in- 
evitably leads to a conformity of action throughout the 
whole sphere of its influence. Humanity of one phase 
is seen of itself in another — touches it, talks with it, 
blends mth it, and becomes hke it. 

There is nothing but a cosmical difference between 
the Chinese and the Celt. Brought together in close 
and continued relations, the work of assimilation will 
eventually be perfected. National prejudice and selfish 
intolerance will yield to that liberal catholicity of feel- 
ing, which even now sends forth its declaration of peace 
between the Celestial Empire and the Emerald Isle. 

Even animal instinct points to and works towards the 
likeness of a higher development. The fawn imitates 
the movements of its dam, until it acquires confidence 
and perfection in the performance. The young eaglets, 
stirred from their nest, and borne on the wings of the 
parent bird, soon learn to cleave the air with their tiny 
pinions and find a resting place on the mountain's peak. 

So, the promptings of the human mind are aU di- 
rected to a something in advance — a superiority either 
in action, thought or expression, which, like a magnet, 
draws aU human sensibilities to itself. The proposition 
holds when applied either to barbaric or civilized races. 
The young Indian's highest ambition was to store as 
much game and count as many scalps as the great chief 



13 

of tlie council. The subaltern looks witli longing eyes 
upon the conquering hero. Aspiring mecliocrit}' would 
fain believe that the ranks of philosophers and states- 
men are not yet full, and fi'om sire to son the desire in- 
tensifies of assimilation with and likeness to the great 
and good. 

We are now prepared to find that these constituents 
of our nature, investigation, communication and assimi- 
lation, beget a fourth, the most potent and influential of 
all, human affection. 

Love of self could not satisf}^ a soul on which the 
impress of Di^dnity rested. It must needs seek the 
sympathy of its kind through all the channels of 
thought and expression. 

AYhat a wonderful arrangement this, to make our 
necessities minister to our advancement, and thus com- 
pel us to forge the chains that bind us to each other. 

A lone man was the first object of heavenly compas- 
sion, and the same influence still broods over our race, 
dra^TQg us Tsatli cords of love. There is no neutral 
gTound here. Though the paths be devious through 
which we tread, they all terminate in the common high- 
way of universal need. Boastful and confident, as we 
are, of our powers and capacities, " to this complexion 
it must come at last," — seK-insufficiency, and a recognized 
dependence on a power other than our own. 

Love rules the world — aye, reigns in heaven. May we 
not safely postulate this proposition? On this generic 
passion rests the welfare of mankind. It is not to be 
regarded only as the tender sentiment awakened between 
the sexes, but in a broader and more comprehensive 
sense, including not only affection, but desii*e, good-will, 
tenderness and charity. 

Possibly we may recall that portion of our early read- 
ing which tells how the destinies of nations once 



14 

liung in the balance of woman's frown or favor. But 
the gush of enthusiasm that first greeted the announce- 
ment has toned down into a sober sentiment of wonder 
and regret. Such occurrences seem to belong to a 
mythologic age, yet in the contrasts of character which 
they furnish, still command our attention. It was pitia- 
ble to find the great Caesar ready to sacrifice " a kingly 
crown" for Cleopatra's smiles — thus publishing the sad- 
dest commentary of his life. It is ennobling to contem- 
plate the devotion of the Koman matron who refused to 
share a throne, and sought no loftier name than " mother 
of the Gracchi." 

It matters not whether the object be worthy or vicious, 
this magnetism of feeling permeates the race, directing 
and controlling all human events. It were idle to offer 
proof of a fact so well recognized and established. 

The whole animal creation is resonant with its echoes. 

It holds the arm of vengeance, guides the hand of 
benevolence, gives strength to the weak, hope to the 
despondent, and shines forth as a beacon on the road to 
happiness. The rude savage finds it, and not all the 
pomp and pride of warfare, or the chase, can obliterate 
the recollection of the old hunting ground, or the prima- 
tile blandishments of his dusky mate. The man of 
culture owns it, and from the heart in which it lies em- 
bosomed, emits those delicate shades of thought and sen- 
timent which beautify and elevate. The philanthropist 
bears it through Polar seas and Tropic suns, as a rich 
guerdon, amid scenes of poverty and privation. It 
nerves the warrior's sword, fires the statesman's zeal, 
gilds the gloom of life, and makes existence blest. So- 
ciety pays it homage, and national pride and patriotism 
feel its pulsations. 

With this mighty agency we must cope in the elucida- 
tion of human progress. 




15 



What vast conceptions lurk within its hidden recesses ? 
Shall we ever attain unto knowledge so profound ? Yes. 
A higher wisdom than our own has solved the problem. 
In that wider realm of thought where reason stands 
abashed, faith assures us that we shall know even as we 
are lmo^\Ti. It declares that love is the fulfillment of a 
law that rules our lives. And here again reason yields 
to revelation. " All the law is fulfilled in our word, 
even in this, 'thou shalt loije thy neighbor as thyself.' " 
No longer groping our way amid doubts and difficulties, 
we are sublimated to a higher sphere of thought and 
action, hfted from the finite to the infinite, the source 
of all knowledge and all truth. 

Having thus sketched an outline of the elementary 
characteristics of human progress (investigation, com- 
munication, assimilation, affection), we are prepared to 
consider the means of its Development. 

This will be manifested in both a physical and intel- 
lectual sense, and present the marked results of a posi- 
tive and negative character. Mind and matter, though 
separate and distinct, move on in one common direction ; 
the one auxiliary to the other, as the string to the bow. 
Without trenching on metaphysical grounds, but tread- 
ing the path of human experience, let us pause to notice 
the " foot-prints" that have withstood the ravages of 
time. 

As the first recognized medium of advancement, we 
start with lahor, good, old-fashioned, honest word. It 
may sound strangely and grate harshly upon the ear 
of refined indolence and pseudo-gentility, but a recur- 
rence to first jDrinciples is the very life of philosophy. 

Eden lost, the earth was left for man to till, and so the 
work of life began. 

Think of it, ye day dreamers in this busy world, who 
loathe labor and brand it as ignoble. Is there not high 



16 

authority for its institution ; and is the command less 
imperative, though tested and sanctioned by the ex- 
perience of over six thousand years ? 

Our productive interests are fast becoming consump- 
tive, and will lapse into hopeless decline, unless the 
teachings of the past find acceptance in the future. 

Let us not be wise in our own conceits. Want first 
induced work, but it in turn produced ivealth, temporal, 
intellectual, spiritual. So the primal curse is made an 
ultimate blessing. 

It is interesting and profitable to trace each successive 
step, by which poor fallen humanity has reached its 
present comparative pre-eminence. 

The natural instinct that made provision for daily need. 
Then, the foresight that gathered food for future use. 
The ingenuity that constructed snares for game and 
shelter for the body. The changing seasons, the dis- 
covery of the hidden treasures of earth and ocean, all 
united in calling into exercise the faculties and powers 
of a being, who had a head to devise as well as a hand 
to execute. 

Self-exertion thus became a necessity. If it had been 
otherwise ordained, the race would have had little to 
commend it in this respect. Body and brain were forced 
into action, and the individual, the family, the tribe, 
yielded to an impulse they could not control. Happy 
sons and daughters of toil, that learned the first lessons 
of usefulness and growth ; who wrought out that system 
of development which is, and is to be, coeval with human 
existence. 

Hence arose those independent and mutual relations 
to which the formation of society may be traced. This 
once established, a wider range of diity and discipline 
opens before us. Not self alone, but the great unself 
that surrounds us demands recognition and service. 



17 

Search through the catalogue of earthly distinctions ; 
sound the depths of human ambition ; we shall find no 
nobler attribute of manhood than that of serving. 

Here again revelation comes to our aid : "If any man 
would be great among you let him be your servant." 

It may be humiliating to earthly pride, to find the 
virtue which it seeks to emulate so inconspicuous and 
servile, but unprejudiced reason points to a loftier con- 
ception. Service is not servility ; it ennobles. 

" It blesses him that gives and him that takes, 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown." 

There can be no possible misunderstanding upon this 
point. Labor strengthens, enriches, elevates. Indolence 
dwarfs, incapacitates and destroys. 

With what inexpressible solicitude then, must we con- 
template that great and growing class, that constitutes 
the " non-producing element " of every community. 
Inconceivably greater than the injury to themselves, 
is their example to others. The channels of usefulness 
run straight to every heait. Why cannot the heart's 
best impulses and desires go out with the tide ? 

We may tolerate, but cannot respect, the son who re- 
solves to float through life on a father's wealth or repu- 
tation, without one honest effort of his own, either of 
mind or body, to benefit the world. We may melt before 
the sweet voice of the siren, who chants to the music of 
the harpsichord, the thrilling inquiry "what is home 
without a mother ? " But our sympathies react when 
we know that mother drudges unaided, that daughter 
may languish unmolested. Truly our estimate of re- 
spectability needs revision. Men and women of sense 
and sensibility should vindicate a true development, by 
lopping off the unnatural excrescences of its growth. 



18 

Every individual may and should find a place in some 
department of service and education will not have lialf 
fulfilled its mission until this lesson be learned. It is 
heaven-enjoined and heaven-blessed, and upon its faith- 
ful observance depends the welfare of the individual and 
the race. 

We stand now at the base of the three great altitudes 
of intellectual research — Biology, Psychology and 
Sociology. 

We can scarcely refer to, much less investigate, the 
doctrines of " types and adaptations," of " organized ex- 
periences," of "progTess and conservatism." Each of 
these forms the subject of an independent treatise, and 
engrosses the attention of the master-minds of the age. 
But our present task would be incomplete without an 
allusion to the general theory upon which they all 
depend. 

There is a law of human development to which our 
lives are conformable. This is said to be the ^' central 
element of intellectual progress." Let us not be mis- 
understood. In these days of materialistic heresies, any 
concession may be wrested from its original purpose 
and placed to the credit of modern scepticism. We do 
not give law the place of the law-giver, but regard it as 
a manifestation of the Supreme will. For, as in the 
material world, observation teaches that certain causes 
produce Hke effects, so, consciousness declares, and ex- 
periencs confirms, the existence of an immutable law% 
that regulates our hves. We might bow submissively to 
a declaration like this, without any attempt at explana- 
tion or argument, but the world has grown so wise that 
it must needs find a reason for all results. And the world 
attempts it, rather than plead guilty to the charge of igno- 
rance. How often would ignorance be bliss indeed, if we 
could only reahze that there is a limit to all human knowl- 



19 

edge. A little learning may be dangerous, but too much 
of it, if perverted, may become destructive. This is ap- 
parent from the antagonistic attitudes of the various 
schools of philosophy at the present day. Law is all 
very well in itself, but cannot be said to be of itself — the 
pre-existing, controlling power that creates, destroys 
and recreates ; that evolutionizes an earth from an 
atom, or a man from a moUusk. 

Away with all knowledge that ignores the fundamen- 
tal source of all knowledge. Better the darkness of ne- 
science than the false lights of unscientific science. Too 
long have their dazzling hues bewildered the unthinking 
mind. It is time that all, possessed of the truer knowledge, 
should everywhere dispense the light of its truth. With 
this qualification, we are ready to accept this additional 
instrumentality to aid us in our advance ; to plainly 
draw the hne of distinction, between the supreme 
authority which said "let there be," and that which 
contents itself by asseverating "it is and always hath 
been." 

This position once defined, we freely admit the rela- 
tivity of all knowledge. Science, after exhaustive re- 
search and experiment, stands on the shadow of its 
latest discovery, and looks in vain for the cause of the 
cause, the explanation of the explanation. Religion 
meekly concedes that it surpasseth all human knowl- 
edge, and thus they meet again, as before stated, at the 
very point of their divergence. 

Intellect, then, is not the imperial thing that many 
suppose it to be. For, reasons Sir William Hamilton, 
" As the greyhound cannot outstrip his shadow, nor the 
eagle outsoar the atmosphere in which he floats, and by 
which alone he may be supported, so the mind cannot 
transcend that sphere of limitation within and through 
which exclusively the possibility of thought is realized." 



. 20 

So, between the knowable and the unknowable there is 
no longer debatable ground. Human effort, revolving 
in its own sphere, works without hindrance and fulfills 
the purpose of life, and the mission of education will ever 
be the discrimination between the real and the ideal, and 
the direction of our intellectual capacities to an attainable 
end. How, then, do we grow toward it ? There is 
almost an inconceivable distance between the savage and 
the sage, between barbarism and civilization ; and yet 
we know that the transformation has occurred. 

By slow, successive, and persistent changes, humanity 
has toiled upward and onward (you may call it evolu- 
tion if you will, so long as it be leavened with religion), 
and the process grows from curiosity to interest, to 
wonder, to grandeur. The groundwork of human intel- 
ligence was the recognition and investigation of physi- 
cal laws, beginning in the order in which they were 
closely connected with personal welfare, and advancing 
by degrees to a comprehension of their extrinsic rela- 
tions. 

It is just possible to conceive of an elementary being, 
who, believing that the world was made for himself alone, 
bade his neighbor " stand out of his sunshine." What 
a glorious awakening from his selfish dream to realize 
that the gifts of nature were common to all. 

How incomprehensible, how unmeasurable must all 
have appeared to the untutored mind. Well foi" the 
race that it was made progressive — that it saw in part 
and knew in part ; else had its faculties and powers 
been dwarfed by immensity. Mercifully and naturally 
the law of development leads us from the simple to the 
complex, from external sense to intuition, association, 
comparison, reason. The hunter, wearied by the chase, 
the yeoman, leaving the field of toil, each sought and 
found that needful rest which necessity enforced and 



/ 






% 



!A 



21 

nature bestowed. Tims were establislied two different 
states, and thus were recognized the earliest relations of 
our earliest existence. 

It lias been truly said that " diiring each stage of evo- 
lution, men must think in such terms of thought as they 
possess." What adequate conception of beauty or gTati- 
fication would a Yarmouth boatman have of a ship on 
canvas ; or a denizen of the forest, of a deer in bronze ? 
Utility-service was the criterion of human judgment, 
and this expanded until it established an intimate rela- 
tion between physical and intellectual labor. 

The former is the genuine Atlas, upon whose broad 
shoulders the world of intellect securely rests. What 
matter if the world in its vanity seeks to disown the 
connection? Such a course involves the sacrifice of a 
truth, which slowly but surely will vindicate itself. 

Beginning with the first conceivable motive — human 
need — let us note the process of human development. 
Conjectural as it may be, in part, we have data enough 
to ratify conviction. With the spontaneous products of 
the earth, the earlier races relieved their wants. But, 
with the increase of population, ingenuity was taxed 
and skill employed to furnish a more extensive and reli- 
able subsistence. 

The uncertainties of the chase led to the domestica- 
tion of animals, and the transition from the primative 
to the pastoral life was gradually affected. Here we 
meet the first historical monument, whose inscriptions 
denote the first type of development, as "a tiUer of the 
ground," and "a keeper of sheep." So vineyards were 
planted, herds multiplied, and human effort was stimu- 
lated and rewarded. Toil fostered talent, which gathered 
and garnered the increase of fruits and cattle, and thus 
established the first wealth of the nation. The right of 
property dates back to a remote period, and constitutes 



22 

an important element in the work of civilization. This 
will best appear in the origin and growth of society, 
towards the formation of which, every human instinct 
and interest naturally tended. 

But let not posterity forget its debt to agriculture. 

From patriarch to patroon, from the feudatary to the 
free-holder, we find one continuous line of service and 
advancement. The nature of the soil and its products, 
the means by which its fertility might be increased — each 
in order engrossed and developed the senses and fac- 
ulties of the race. Experiment succeeded experiment. 
The simple expanded to the complex, and that com- 
parative state of perfection was reached which dignified 
agriculture and made it a power for good. 

"What makes a plenteous harvest, when to turn 
The fruitful soil, and when to sow the corn, 
The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine. 
And how to raise on elms the teeming vine, 
The birth and genius of the frugal bee." 

Thus did Yirgil chant and Dry den re-echo, in lan- 
guage of poesy, the practical inquiries and pursuits of 
mankind. 

Have they degenerated either in excellence or import- 
ance ? Have we become the victims of strange delusions 
and unwholesome prejudices ? Is Cincinnatus a myth 
and Cato a fiction ? Are the heroes of the American 
revolution mere creatures of poetic fancy ? Why, then, 
has the first and noblest occupation of our race found 
so few follow^ers? Is there not here sufficient scope for 
intelligence and research ? Here, where chemistry, bot- 
any, metallurgy and all the kindred sciences had their 
birth? 

The ancient Roman sought no loftier badge of nobil- 
ity. Pliny tells us that " the Earth took delight in being 



23 

tilled by the hands of men crowned with laurels and 
decorated with triumphal honors." 

Auspicious day was it when agriculture advanced from 
a mere occupation to a science ; from the process of 
imitation to a more extensive development by experi- 
ence. What finer biographies have been written than 
those of the men who came fresh from the soil to defend 
a nation's honor, or promote its welfare? We need 
more of them at the present day. More of that patient 
endurance, stability of purpose and healthful conserva- 
tism that constitute the woof and warp of national de- 
velopment. Not mere hirelings to exhaust and im- 
poverish the earth's surface, but genuine proprietors, 
whose interest and intelligence shall cause the wilder- 
ness to blossom and the waste-places to rejoice. 

We have seen how a widely scattered population has 
been territorialized, and within prescribed individual 
limits taught the first lessons of demand and supply. 

Naturally from this individual possession and produc- 
tion arose the commerce of the world. The exchange 
of commodities was not only convenient but necessary. 

A had corn, B had wine, and so the deficiency of each 
was met and supplied. As with the individual, so with 
the tribes and nations. Intelligence expanded, wants 
were increased, and the interchange of foreign products 
commenced. The spices of Midian were bartered for 
the gTains of Egypt. Inland commodities found their 
way to the seaport, and the great emporiums of trade 
were established. Side by side with the two agencies 
last mentioned stands that of manufactiu^es. Imple- 
ments of trade served to lighten labor and increase its 
results. Necessity was thus rightfully domiciled as "the 
mother of invention." 

Spanning with a single thought the long history of 
details between animal locomotion and steam propul- 



24 

sion, between the natural forces and mechanic arts, we 
are ready to concede as a terse and expressive con- 
conclusion, that agriculture, commerce and manufac- 
tures form the tripod on which our national prosperity 
rests. 

Thus far we have dealt with physical advancement as 
a result of utility and service. We have premised and 
proved that by the accumulation and comparison of ex- 
periences the practical work of civilization has been 
wrought out. 

Did time suffice, we might refer to the common prop- 
erties of matter, and show how they have been formu- 
lated and systematized, and how all phenomena, me- 
chanical, chemical, thermal or electric have found proper 
adaptation and use. Enough has been suggested for the 
recognition of that universal principle of law in matter, 
which equally directs and controls the progress of mind 
and morals. 

Let us now follow our sentiment within the pale of 
that arbitrary institution denominated society. We use 
the term in its widest sense, signifying a multitude of 
free men collected together and united by common con- 
sent and covenant, in order to deliberate, determine and 
act jointly for a common purpose. The essential char- 
acteristic of this social relation is its mutuality or com- 
monness. This must be its true test of merit and the 
aim and end of its existence. 

Preference must always yield to principle, not only in 
the commonwealth, but in all its distinctive associations, 
literary, religious, benevolent, political or convivial. 
Schools, sects, creeds, politics, domestic institutions, 
are all submerged in a common humanity. 

We have been permitted to realize a partial consumma- 
tion of this fact. Empirical dogmas of intellect and 
morals have been sifted and shattered by th,e rational 



25 

intensity of truth. The partisanship of human slavery 
finds its grave in an uprisen and firmly-estabhshed emanci- 
pation. Divisions of doctrine and religious belief blend, 
like prismatic hues, into the pure light of an Evangelical 
Alliance. And soon shall Ave reach that period in our 
national history, when all social rights shall be made to 
conform to a higher law ; when Salt Lake City shall 
have lost its savor, and the last stigma on the national 
escutcheon be obliterated forever. The service we owe 
to society must be in the direction of its legitimate 
work, pointing out and checking its abuses, and giving 
tone and temper to its future growth. 

What shall we say. of that potent instrumentality of 
human welfare — popular opinion ? Honestly formed 
and well du-ected, it becomes a strong tower of defence. 
But how easily perverted and misapplied, all are con- 
strained to admit. We have but to recall a familiar inci- 
dent to illustrate our meaning. Recently, in a neighbor- 
ing State, a man was accused of a capital offence. Popular 
sentiment anticipated his actual conAT.ction, and pro- 
nounced him- guilty. The result of his trial justified 
the anticipation. The criminal was doomed to suffer the 
death penalty, and the day of its execution was close at 
hand. An appeal was made to the Executive clemency 
for a mitigation of the sentence, and what follows ? A 
painful but vigorous reaction in public sentiment. A 
large proportion of those who clamored for his ignomini- 
ous death, now join in thrilling and earnest efforts to 
save the culprit's life. Is there not something radically 
wrong in this? 

Popular opinion erred either in its first expression, or 
in the last. Such vacillation is subversive of all princi- 
ple, and if encouraged would end in social anarchy and 
demoralization. The fault lies in the fact that compara- 
tively few of the people think for themselves ; thus de- 



26 

frauding themselves of humanity's choicest gift. A mere 
assertion sometimes floats along uncriticised, until it is 
accepted as a certainty. We must get out of the 
abominable habit of adopting conclusions for facts, or 
even of accepting the latter on questionable authority. 
The ignobler passions of our nature are not yet in sucK 
a perfect state of subjection as to banish incredulity.. 
Should we judge of our public men, on the statements, 
of their political opponents, we should be forced to be- 
lieve that never was country so cursed, or republic so 
jeopardized, as ours. Indeed, the popular estimate of 
each, as evidenced by the other, reveals the mortifying 
fact that political honesty is almost extinct, and tiie 
lamp of Diogenes might again be used with profit. 

How shall we overcome this irrational antagonisms 
between the members of the great human family ? 

By letting humanity speak out in all its fullness and 
power. Then will every chord of human sensibility be 
touched, all jarring discords will be lost in the universal 
harmony ; and amidst the vast volume of sound, welling 
up from under all, around all and overshadowing all,, 
will be heard the rare rich melody of charity. 

A single allusion more and we dismiss this branch of 
the subject. It could scarcely be possible that society,, 
which has scattered her benefits with unsparing hand in 
the domestic circle, should suffer no violence in the 
house of her friends. The outgrowth of liberality is 
(extravagance, and it is this vice that poisons the very 
;atmosphere of earthly happiness. It is restricted 
neither to sex or caste, but dazzles and flickers in every 
grade and condition of life. Not what we are, or ougJit 
to be, but w^hat other people are, and what they thtnh of 
us, as compared with themselves. This rule might work 
well if applied only to the excellencies of character or 
condition, but it fails of its purpose when it leads to 



•27 

excesses of any kind. We liave no riglit to beggar either 
our conscience or purse, for the attainment of that which 
was never designed for us. 

Here is a most promising field for the exercise of in- 
tellectual influence. The mind can take a loftier flight 
and rise 

" Above the smoke find stir of this dim spot which men call earth." 

Society, from its origin to its perfection, should 
embody and illustrate one prominent principle, ^liat 
one could not, two did perform. What the few were 
unable to accompHsh, the many successfully completed. 

Hence the bond of union, that expanded and strength- 
ened with each necessity and service. 

We shall flnd also that the history of Government 
forms no exception to the general rale of development. 
From its inchoation to its present status, it has jour- 
nej^ed along the self-same line, from the lower to the 
higher order of establishment. Brute force made the 
first despot, self-assumption the first autocrat, but the 
essence of humanity, the divinity within it, quickened 
the masses, and inaugurated the system of popular 
government. 

The di\dne right of kings formed no barrier to the 
inculcation of the principle, that government exists for 
the benefit of its subjects, not subjects for the benefit of 
the government. The tendency of the age is to an ex- 
tension of the doctrine of less laio and more freedom to 
the race. But just here, we should be indulged in a 
long parenthesis. 

The perfection of a government, affording the largest 
freedom, can only be sustained by an honest and intel- 
ligent constituency. Rebelhons are occasioned quite as 
often by ballots as bullets, and it is an open question,, 
whether ignorance or lawlessness is the baser element o£ 



28 

citizenship. Law is not license, but qualified liberty. Let 
this be our lesson to the masses. "With such a liberal and 
expansive theory as ours, where the sceptre of authority 
is the staff of the citizen, what wonder is it that patriot- 
ism and philanthropy go hand in hand. Yet should we 
watch with jealous eye the excesses of a spontaneous 
development like this. The sparks fi'om the purest 
flame may cause disaster. And so, the largest liberty 
and broadest republicanism should, in this sense at 
least, be held no less sacred than " the Divinity that 
doth hedge about a king." In the enumeration of our 
rules of human conduct, let us not forget the law of 
limitations. 

What shall we say in reference to that higher develop- 
ment, denominated Litellectual Progress. 

The very place that surrounds us is redolent with its 
annals, and an encyclopedic review at this time, would be 
as distasteful as unnecessary. 

Education in this century has touched "high- water 
mark." There is scarcely a department that has been left 
unexplored. Human inquiry has pushed its way steadily 
and successfully through thekn6wable unto the unknown, 
and from age to age the current of investigation has sped 
onward, gaining fresh influence at each advance. 

In the history of literature is "v\Titten that of the 
nations. 

Warlike races and predatory tribes broke up the 
fallow ground, and sowed the seeds of esthetic culture. 
Mortal strifes and deadly hates budded and blossomed 
into a settled civilization of tolerance and peace. Seem- 
ing disasters have proved to be blessmgs in disguise, and 
the world's greatest revolutions have been the epochs 
that foreshadowed its subsequent tranquility and tri- 
umph. The most warlike age of Athens was distinguished 
also as the period of her highest literary culmination. 



29 

And so, in later days, the wars waged for political and 
religious freedom, developed an advanced state of intel- 
lect and morals. 

Without stopping to analyze the motives, we can esti- 
mate the results of human action. These all point in 
the direction of human advancement, teaching us both 
by precept and example the evil to shun, the good to 
emulate. 

So has each age been served, and served in turn, 
By that before, and that which follows on. 

Are we then wiser and better than the generations 
that have passed away, and if so, in what ? The ancients 
have a very respectable record, at least for culture and 
cultivation. Greece and Eome have not yet lost their 
prestige for furnishing models of literature and art. The 
" learned lumber" of the schools still floats above the 
undertow of popular prejudice. The laurel wreath of 
the exact sciences still decorates the brow of the ancient 
philosophy. Archaeological discoveries have shown the 
existence and perfection of arts, compared with which, 
our own are but shadowy outlines. 

Yet are we not without a witness to human advancement. 
It has ever been the privilege of the race to utilize and 
extend the acquisitions of the past. 

Plato's teachings lent wings to Pascal's sublimer con- 
ceptions. Socrates, in his moral and intellectual great- 
ness, prefigured a type of humanity that required centu- 
ries to develop. From the Aristotelian to the Baconian 
system of philosophy, can be discerned traceable lines 
of similarity and progression. Chai/cer found his inspi- u^ 
ration in Dante's and Boccacio's productions, and thus 
engrafted upon the parent tree the choice scion of 
Italian hterature. 
Raphael and Shakespeare both surpassed their masters. 



I 



BO 

^lilton revived th6 dramatic art and sought to divert 
its power into other channels and for better purposes. 
The poetry of passion, as depicted by Byron and 
Moore, cloyed with its sweetness and gave appetite for the 
^-y^^' new era of song which WAdsworth and Coleridge inaugu- 
rated. The want of intellectual activity, to which Gibbon 
ascribes the fall of the Roman empire, found a reaction 
in the new order of events which followed, and gave the 
key note to Buckle's history of civilization in England. 
The Sword of the G?esars opened the way for a new 
development of Saxon supremacy. Rude intelligence 
ripened into culture, and the sun of civilization length- 
ened its shadows upon the Eternal City to rise in 
brighter effulgence upon Brittania's shore. 

We might run parallels by the hour and prove with 
historical accuracy that in the departments of literature 
and art the one great merit of each succeeding age has 
been that of ser\dng another. 

Our literature is no mean inheritance. 

Cradled 'neath Oriental skies, nurtured by rugged Celt 
and sturdy Saxon ; traversing alike the mountain wilds 
of Scandinavia, the storied plains and enchanted shores 
of the classic lands, winding its way through barbarism 
and superstition, thence journeying onward from one 
stage of civilization to another, it has come down to us 
compacted and complete with cherished memories and 
associations. Let our guardianship of it be fruitful and 
faithful. So shall it flow on with undiminished influence 
to the goal of all human aspirations. 

We can scarcely pause to mention, much less estimate, 
the breadth and scope of scientific discovery and inven- 
tion. A new world seems to have dawned upon us in the 
wonderful exhibitions of skill and research, upon which 
we are permitted to look. But out of all ovir advan- 
tages arise corresponding responsibilities. The gift to 




31 



us lias been large, tlie requirement will be in like pro- 
portion. 

Our educational institutions must rise to the standard 
of the demand, or fail to serve the end of their estab- 
lishment. Science has elevated former occupations to 
the rank and dignity of professions. Intellectual train- 
ing is no longer to be confined to the select few, but 
must be extended to a vast army of productive laborers. 
No practical benefit can result from expanding the 
college curriculum to meet such a want. This will be 
best supplied by more intermediate schools, or acade- 
mies of science, supplementing the public schools of the 
state. Thus graduating the course of instruction, we 
shall the better accomplish the education of the nation. 

Knowledge was never intended and will no longer be 
permitted to dwell in cloistered seclusion and issue its 
edicts and pronunciamentoes from shrines and temples. 
We have levelled Parnassus and stand on the broad 
plain of universal progress. We have outlived the su- 
perstitious sentiment, that education is the eclectic of 
its own followers, and learned to know that like the 
Heaven we love, "it lies about us in our infancy ;" that 
from the cradle to the cofiin the work has always 
been going on, and some of its grandest achievements 
have found no place in history. 

Educated men can no longer afford to hoard up their 
intellectual treasures for the gratification of their own 
personal ambition. They should be daily almoners and 
partakers of the common blessing. Human isolation is 
the prelude to moral and intellectual desolation. 

Development is aided by the personal contact of indi- 
viduals. 

There is a magnetism in humanity as well as in the 
earth's meridian, and both are imparted in the same 
manner. The bar of iron must be struck repeatedly 



32 

before it becomes magnetized. So man, in contact with 
his fellow, receives and imparts the influence which 
both need. 

Not long since a proposition was introduced by Lord 
Stanhope, in the House of Lords, looking to the estab- 
lishment of an order of merit or knighthood for literary 
men. It was made a subject of serious consideration 
and future action. How incongruous such a distuiction 
in these days of enlightenment. What ! create a titled 
aristocracy for those who draw their supplies from the 
daily experiences of a common humanity ? With equal 
propriety may we dignify as marshalls or generals, the 
correspondents of an army, Avho tell of battles fought 
and victories won in which they had little or no 23articipa- 
tion. We need no higher badge of nobility than the fact of 
our common brotherhood; and solve as we may, the 
problem of intellectual development at any period in the 
world's history, we shall reach this result — the monarchy 
of mind is usefulness, the realm of thought is service. 

Last in narration among all other instrumentalities of 
human progress, but first in importance, we find that of 
religion. Positive knowledge never did and never will 
satisfy human consciousness. The mystery of existence, 
both in its present and in its future state, has always 
engrossed and defied human reason. How earnestly 
the race has labored for a solution of the ever recurring 
question its own history declares. The combined pow- 
ers of intellectual and scientific investigation have 
been exhausted in the fruitless attempt to grasp the 
Infinite, and they stand to-day just where they started, 
on the verge of the border land. 

Yet, as we trace the development of this sentiment, 
we find the influence of education in its outward mani- 
festations. 

The barbarian's deities were like himself, cruel and 



33 

implacable. Next in order, Avas the attempt to secure 
eternal happiness bj human suffering, and the car of 
Juggernaut still rolls on to crush and to cro^n. So 
from suffering to sacrifice we reach the christian era and 
the plan of a vicarious atonement. Following this we 
find the "faith once delivered to the saints," subjected 
to new interpretations and adapted to the carnal nature. 
Crimes were condoned, punishments remitted by alms- 
giving and masses, and indulgences sold in the name of 
the church. 

Then the Reformation damned upon the world, and 
the protesfants of that period laid the foundation of that 
benign and expansive system of religion to which the 
world owes so much. From that period to the present 
we have witnessed a miracle of creeds and establish- 
ment of sects, all depending like branches from the one 
true vine. 

It is not our provuice to criticise doctrines further 
than to show a marked and steady progression from a 
lower to a higher order of belief. Heart education has 
been the sheet anchor of the race ; elevating practical 
life to the recognition of principle, and fusing all human 
interests in the crucible of affection. What had we 
been without the refining, controlling influences of a 
better nature. Here 'we find the true scource of 
power and permanent groAvth. What the motive power 
is to the engine, love is to humanity. Lacking this, 
the proudest monuments of earthly success are but 
mute mile-stones along the journey of life. Whatever 
creed we pin our faith to, whatever system of edu- 
cation we project or encourage, let us ever remember, 
that knowledge unsanctified is unproductive of any 
good. 

That man's noblest ambition can be compassed and 



34 

satisfied only in the fulfillment of the two great com- 
mandments. 

"It is the heart, and not the brain 

That to the highest doth attain, 
And he who foUoweth love's behest 
Far excelleth all the rest. " 

Having thus glanced at some of the main elements of 
human progress we are left to notice its reivard. 

This is an observable feature in the economy of all 
governments, human and divine, and marks the course 
of true development. 

What then does humanity realize from the invest- 
ment ? Has her work always been profitless and self- 
sacrificing ? In the world of nature it is asserted that 
nothing is lost. Decay and decomposition are the fun- 
damental stages of new life and growth. The seed dies 
but to bud and blossom again. The limpid stream 
flows through mountain and valley until it finds its level, 
is caught up in shadowy vapors, and again descends in 
fertilizing showers. Even animal dissolution works a 
reproduction of its constituent elements in new and 
other forms of matter. 

Is the moral and intellectual life then devoid of this 
recuperative power ? Truly we naight say the question is 
answered by the asking. 

Science has proved that with an instrument of high 
power we should discover that each pulsation of our 
hearts gives a jar to the whole room. Surely not less 
than this has the gTeat, throbbing heart of humanity 
affected the race. She has secured and transmitted a 
princely estate of which we are all lawful inheritors. 
Nor is it to suffer diminution in our hands, but enriched 
and enlarged, it shall still descend as the property of 
ages yet to be. 



3§ 

Wliat better reward can we ask than the saving of 
such an inheritance. It needs no extended argument to 
prove who have been and are ever to be the custodians 
of such a trust. The masses may execute but there 
must always be master minds to direct. Intellectual 
supremacy will always vaunt itself; there must be con- 
servative wisdom to guide and control. The day of 
inaction and scholastic repose has passed. Intellect is 
now on its mettle, and woe to the competitor who halts 
or wavers. Science, radiant with recent successes, is 
ready to tilt lances with philosophy and theology. To 
your tents then, ye men of letters and learning ! Gird 
on the armor of true knowledge and stem the tide of 
growing unbelief. Pulpit and rostrum must stand 
together, priest and people must join hands in turning 
the current of advancing intellect into safe and pure 
channels. Fear neither the subtleties of logic nor the 
imputation of following a "blind faith," for "truth is 
mighty and will prevail." Meet the darts of scepticism 
with the shield of revelation. Exalt wisdom and be pro- 
moted by her. Let the world know that education and 
humanity are convertible terms, and that love to God 
and our fellow men are the cardinal principles of all 
knowledge. 

The nation also must be protected from the incursion 
and influence of professed reformers and humanitarians. 
This class is a growing one, especially in this country. 
A few half-educated and designing partisans, who never 
possessed the industry or patience to acccomplish any- 
thing for themselves, unite in persuading the laboring 
classes that the laws regulating the distribution and 
ownership of property, are inequitable and unjust ; that 
capital is the natural enemy of labor and will ever re- 
main its imperious sovereign. Hence arise riots, resist- 
ance to legal authority, and sometimes entire revolutions 



36 

in government. A manly exposition of the trnth in the 
hands of one skilled to wield it will always counteract 
an evil like this. This work we must do and keep doing 
if we would save and secure the productive interests of 
the nation. If men of true and acknowledged ability 
falter here, the demagogues are always ready and willing 
to relieve them. 

Our youth must be trained for such emergencies, but 
too much must not be expected or required in prelimin- 
ary preparation. Education is the work of a lifetime 
and is to be neither overrated or underrated. Every 
college graduate should be possessed of the essentials 
of a liberal culture, and these must always depend upon 
the question of natural selection and the sphere of ac- 
tion he is destined to fill. Four years will scarce suffice 
to teach him to know himself and the use of the 
faculties with which he is endowed. This is all we can 
hope to accomplish, and the attempt that is sometimes 
made to incorporate a post-graduate with the collegiate 
course must always meet, as it deserves, with signal 
failure. 

Nor should the social element of the student's 
life be allowed to degenerate into pure selfishness. 
Physical development should be secured without 
compromise of scholastic dignity or usefulness. Feats 
of physical skill and endurance should not be made the 
object of rivalries among institutions of learning. Far 
more ennobling will be the result of that new system of 
inter-collegiate contests, that test intellectual ability and 
reward intelligent merit. If labor is required for de- 
velopment, let it be in the direction of usefulness. At 
Oxford, many of the students are engaged, under 
the supervision of Professor Ruskin, in constructing 
and beautifying roads and gardens. In like manner 
may every " waster of the midnight oil " find ex- 



37 

ercise that combines both pleasure and profit. 

No less important is the duty we owe to the supervi- 
sion and correction of the logic and literature of the 
day. The parent of Hampden and Sidney, of Newton and 
Bacon, of Milton and Shakespeare has seen her moss- 
covered honors temporarily overshadowed by the fresher 
triumphs of German philosophers, statesmen and poets, 
and the sceptre of literary supremacy, at this time, pen- 
dulates between the old kingdom and the new empire. 

So, in the not far distant future will our own country 
be called to lead in the department of literature, as she 
now does in inventive art. Such a result will naturally 
follow the development of our peculiar government and 
free institutions. Indeed, if it could be made the 
subject of a patent right we'd have it at once But are 
we content, even now, to patronize " machine poetry," 
or lend the weight of our influence to the further 
dissemination of diluted, deteriorated prose? With a 
few notable exceptions, notable because they are so few, 
how does the taste of the masses answer to the true test 
of literary merit? Who are the popular orators and 
writers of the period ? The men and women of pure 
culture and refinement, who instruct to elevate, or the 
literary mongers who " stoop to conquer," and pander 
to prurient appetites and sensual gratifications? 

The vox populi, it is said, demands originality of 
thought and expression, and the changes have been rung 
upon this chord until the entire harmony of literature is 
m jeopardy. The pulpit labors, the forum heaves, and 
the press groans, to find at last, that the only thing 
original in man, is the sin in which he was conceived. 
Let the masses be honest to themselves. Original, in 
their vocabulary, means sensational, and their own 
actions fully justify such an interpretation. 

Smith talks to crowded houses on the high-toned sub- 



88 

ject of the "sentimental frog," while Jones lectures to 
empty benches on the " Wonders of Nature as Illus- 
trated by Art." We need not amplify this point ; you 
have all felt the evil, then assist in applying the remedy. 
Preserve, and diffuse the respect which all true culture 
affords. Place the impress of your disapprobation on 
every individual or thing that violates its sanctity, even 
if you stand alone in the act. 

Hiss the literary interloper as a poor actor in the 
great drama of life, and teach the gaping crowd, who 
hang upon his words, that all his utterences are but the 
puppets and shams of a mischievous fiction. 

To the women of America also we address our appeal. 
You, it is said, can " wing your way where men must 
wade." Save the literature of the nation from the 
vandalism of license. Withhold your recognition from 
the specious lures of the so-called advancing intelligence, 
and the victory will be won without a battle. 

But we must not become censorious in our judgments. 

Our Alma Mater is no step-mother, and her sons 
would but traduce her teachings, if they ever forget her 
lessons of charity. Criticism should not be venomous 
or personal, but dignified and truthful. Two illustra- 
tions will point our moral. Carlyle speaks of Swin- 
burne, as " a man standing up to his neck in a cess- 
pool, and adding to its contents." Lowell, in a review 
of Emerson, pithily remarks that he has built many tem- 
ples for his gods, but left no place of entrance for them. 
Can the question of choice between these two methods 
be a matter of doubt ? 

We need, however, less criticism and more co-opera- 
tion among men. Humanity, in her dealings with them, 
finds quite as much to admire as to condemn. 

With equal earnestness and fidelity must our edu- 
cated men serve in the front rank of popular opinion. 



39 

A free government and a free press are potent sources 
of both good and evil. Liberty, without intellectual 
and moral restriction, is like a ship without a rudder, 
drifting listlessly, but surely, towards self-destruction. 
It is your bounden duty to watch and analyze every 
question that effects or agitates the public mind, and 
give it proper direction and influence. 

Shirk this responsibility, and you deserve to forfeit 
the care and protection which a government extends to 
its subjects. Meet it, and your reward is no less sure 
than enduring. None, better that you, can expound 
humanity's great principle of love controlling law. 

Let this saying of Lactantius be the guide of your 
labors. 

" Primus sapientise gradus, est. falsa intelligere ; 
Sejfeundus, vera cognoscere." 

So shall each race immortalize the life it lives by living 
in the lives it leaves behind. 

ProgTessive humanity then means something. 

It is the most serious, solemn subject we can touch, 
for it touches us in turn. 

We have had faint glimpses of its nature, its develop- 
ment and its reward, and its brief summary is found in 
its o^TL teachings — seeking, seeving, saving. 

What nobler aim or end was ever placed within human 
reach ? Within its continuous and continued scope are 
embraced the mind's capacity and the soul's destiny. 

Fellows Alumni : — The lesson of the day is individual 
activity. The tares of error grow rank and stiff in the 
fields of ci^dhzation. These must be uprooted if we 
would escape the reproach of a barren harvest. Loyalty 
to government, both human and divine, must be incul- 
cated and developed. 



40 

The natural affections must be enlarged and strength- 
ened. True merit must have its rightful place, and pry- 
ing pretence consigned to the shadows of its own little- 
ness. 

The foolishness of men is to become wisdom, and to 
be made the instrument of their salvation. 

The race has started from another Nile to find a new 
Jordan. 

On it toils, meeting its Marahs and Meribahs as of 
old, and growing the Aviser and better by each succeeding 
disaster or advantage. We are all working for, or 
against each other, voluntarily or involuntarily. Shame 
on us, if we, who profess to know, neglect to perform the 
one great purpose of our existence. Life's battle is 
raging on every side. Infidelity flaunts its banner in 
the face of truth. Lawlessness is arrayed against 
loyalty. Revolutions shake the very foundations of con- 
servatism, and vice defies virtue. 

Think you the contest is unequal and profitless ? Shall 
its very magnitude discourage mdividual effort ? 

"No ; for whoever with on earnest soul 
Strives for some end, from this low world afar, 
Still upward travels, tho' he miss the goal, 
And strays — but towards a star. 

Better than fame is still the wish for fame, 
The constant training for a glorious strife ; 
The athlete, niu'tured for the Olympian game, 
Gains strength, at least for life. 

To gladden earth with beauty, or men's lives, 
To serve with action, or their souls with truth, 
These are the ends for which the hope survives 
The ignobler thirsts of youth," 



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